2008 Woodie Awards
Spelling Lessons
Courtney Bruner/Pounce Editor
Issue date: 11/9/07 Section: Arts and Entertainment
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Spelling is not the only thing to be learned form the play Eleemosynary.
Eleemosynary, meaning a charitable act, is played with few props and on platforms with only three actors in the whole play.
Never have a daughter. She will not like you. This line states the feeling of the daughter, Artie (played by Allyson Higgs) against her mother, Dorothea (played by Fay Vayner), and her daughter, Echo (played by Mariam Amr).
The three women tell their stories through flashback and conversations through the phone and a few in person.
Artie abandons her daughter, who is then raised by Dorthea, the grandmother. Echo, whose goal in life is to be the spelling bee champion of the country, is in love with words, her favorite being eleemosynary, and struggles to talk with her mother over the phone.
Before the play starts, Dorthea has had a stroke and Echo is forced to be with her mother. The two struggle to find a way to be with each other.
The play is played very simply, with the only prop being a set of wings. The characters walk on platforms, enter, and exit through the doors of the theater.
This puts the focus on the play completely on the characters and the lines of the play.
The lighting (designed by David
Wolski) adds emotion and helps the audience to understand who is talking and
who is of importance in that scene. It helps to add more to the play without the use of props.
The costumes were very simple as well. Karen Eisenhour has the three characters in plain clothing.
She makes it so that it is easy to tell the age of the three characters with Vayner in very flowing clothes, Higgs in a suit, and Amr in jeans and a sweater. It added to the simplicity of the play and set the time as in the nineties.
The three characters did a great job at playing their parts. Vayner goes from pretending to be in a coma to being a crazy grandmother who struggles to raise her daughter and then granddaughter. She says her lines with ease.
She also does a good job at portraying someone who sees things differently and who might seem a little strange to those around
her.
Vayner did have a hard time pronouncing some of her words. She had to start phrases over a few times.
Higgs plays someone who wants to be very
normal. She does a good job at this. However, when the characters flashback to her childhood, she does not change her character.
It is hard to tell the difference between her adult self and that of her teenage years. She was also a little to stiff in her lines.
Arm did a great job at everything she did. She had to play everyone from a spelling crazed teenager to a baby, both of which she played well. The parts were distinct and were said well. It was amazing how she was able to spell and pronounce complicated words without skipping a beat.
Overall, the play was done very well. The actors worked well together.
There was only one part in the play that was hard to understand because the characters were told to speak to different speeches at the same time.
However, the three played it off well and were able to convey emotion at the same time.
Spelling was not the only thing learned from this play. There was also family, fulfilling dreams, and becoming Eleemosynary.
Show times:
Nov. 10, 12, 13 7:00 p.m.
Nov. 11 2:00 p.m.
Box office opened Nov. 5 from 2:00 - 6:00 p.m. and one hour before the performance.
Call 581-3110 for tickets: leave your name, phone number, number of seats and night you'd like to attend, and speak clearly and slowly. We will contact you back IF the seats ARE NOT available. Otherwise tickets must be picked up by 6:30 the night of the performance.
Location: Village Theatre
Price: Adults $10, Senior Cit/Faculty/Staff $8, Students $5
Click here for the Village Theater calendar!
Click here for the slideshow!
-Info provided by Chris Essig/Online Interactive Editor
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